Deadly Clashes Continue Between Russian Troops, Chechen Rebels

Russian commanders insisted Tuesday that they were sticking to President Boris N. Yeltsin’s plan to end the offensive in Chechnya despite deadly clashes between Russian troops and rebel fighters.

Thirty separatist fighters reportedly died in one battle, but Russian commanders said their troops will keep their promise to shoot only in self-defense.

Meanwhile, Chechen rebel leader Dzhokar M. Dudayev ridiculed Yeltsin’s cease-fire decree.

“After the so-called cessation of combat operations, combat actions escalated with new strength in some regions of the republic,” Azerbaijan’s Turan news agency quoted Dudayev as saying.

Russian forces and rebels fired automatic weapons at each other throughout the day Tuesday in the southwestern villages of Bamut, Stary Achkhoi and Orekhovo, Russia’s Interfax news agency said.

Maj. Gen. Stanislav Kondratiev, deputy Russian commander in Chechnya, said his troops had forced separatists out of Orekhovo but went on the defensive Tuesday morning when the rebels tried to retake their positions in the village, Interfax said.

He said 150 Chechen fighters were involved in the assault on Orekhovo and that 30 were killed. No Russian casualties were reported, and the figures could not be independently confirmed.

Kondratiev insisted that Russian forces were acting in line with Yeltsin’s cease-fire decree, which said Russia reserved the right to return fire if its troops were attacked.